Pandering To The `New Mainstream`

October 05, 1988|By Kate Michelman.

If George Bush didn`t accomplish anything else during the first presidential debate, he made it crystal clear that he`s intent on continuing the work Ronald Reagan began eight years ago to change the nation`s definition of what constitutes the American ``mainstream.`` At other times this blatant political strategy would be considered superficial and laughable. It is no longer a laughing matter.

The Vice President is dangerously close to success in transforming what was once considered the fringe or extremist elements in society-known as the ``New Right``-into the ``New Mainstream.`` There are many signs that this political alchemy is in fact working to legitimize the extremist fringe. Most alarming is that for the first time since the dark days of the 1950s, the term ``un-American`` has re-entered our national political dialogue in a serious way. Equally alarming is that increasing numbers of politicians and commentators are slipping into silence and assent for fear of having their patriotism questioned.

Before this is allowed to go much further, it`s time we all asked ourselves: Where will this ``New Mainstream`` lead us and who are its members?

These are the same folks who have proven themselves insensitive to any religious belief not their own, hostile to civil rights and intolerant of dissent. Their leaders and spokesmen are the same shrill voices that were until recently considered the fringe element-Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jesse Helms and Pat Buchanan.

Although Reagan failed to tangibly advance the key items in their social agenda, such as outlawing abortion, he did move them onto center stage and legitimize their voice. Today, Bush acclaims them the mainstream of American values and thought.

Mainstream! These are the people who feel it`s fine to ban or burn books they don`t like, to jail parents who refuse, on religious grounds, to have their children salute the flag, who want to impose their views of what`s moral and what isn`t on the rest of us. These are the Americans who attack the ACLU for defending the constitutional rights of some citizens but are strangely silent on its defense of Ollie North.

In the campaign clamor over the Pledge of Allegiance, we`re losing sight of the real danger this New Mainstream poses. In a nation of people which the Pledge proclaims ``indivisible,`` theirs is the voice which divides: the repressive, intolerant voice demanding the rights of the individual be sacrificed to what they believe is morally correct.

No issue in the first presidential debate more sharply focuses the true characteristics of George Bush`s New Mainstream than abortion. Truly, this is an issue which divides. But outlawing abortion and then imposing criminal sanctions will divide us even further on an issue that only each of us can resolve for ourselves. Yet the leaders of the New Mainstream insist that we impose their beliefs by force of law.

But if they succeed in outlawing and criminalizing abortion, what is the penalty? And for women or just for their physicians? What about

``accessory to the crime`` penalties for the clergy, counselors and spouses? And what about taxes for the scores of additional prisons we`ll need?

In his cynical attempt to grandstand before the ``New Mainstream,`` Bush failed to note that if Roe v. Wade is overruled, it will be the states and not the president who will be free to impose criminal sanctions. In the

``gentler`` society the Vice President envisions, desperate women will be forced to risk their lives at the mercy of back-alley abortionists, and if they survive they will face the possibility of jail terms legislated by the states, not Congress.

Not wishing to really face the hard implications of his views on criminalization, the Vice President quickly attempted to shield himself by stating that women who have illegal abortions should not be prosecuted, but should be considered ``second victims.`` That Bush characterizes women as

``additional victims`` provides a significant clue to the way he and his New Mainstream view women. He sends a message that he does not believe women are capable of making informed, conscientious decisions to determine their own destinies.

The larger point is that in his attempt to pander to the hard-core fringe of his New Mainstream over the abortion issue, Bush punctures the whole hollow pretense he and his advisers have so carefully crafted. For the fact is that the vast majority of Americans-the real mainstream-hold that individual rights and liberty are far more precious than even the most skilled politicians imagine.

With Justice Blackmun warning that the new majority on the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic abortion-rights decision; with Jerry Falwell leading the charge in the states to block Medicaid funding for abortion even in cases of rape and incest; and with George Bush campaigning to outlaw abortion and waffling on the criminalization issue, it`s time to ask whether we really do want the New Mainstream picking the next Supreme Court justices and deciding the future of individual rights.

I think not. It`s time to call the cards on this freedom-threatening masquerade.